Month: March 2011

When attempting to grab consumers’ attentions,  one of the most efficient ways is to create an unique / eye-catching packages. I decided to share few packagings that are interesting and unique, through a blog/website that I found on internet called “best design options”. Some of the packages that are introduced on the website, have won Pentawards, a worldwide competition exclusively devoted to packaging design.

1. This is the packaging for water. It mainly promotes environmentally friendliness and convenience; this paper bottle is 100% recycled and also once you open it, you can close it just like normal water bottle. One possible weakness that, because it is purely made from paper, the package may tear and water may leak.

2. This is one of my favorite packaging out of all 50 that were displayed and it had also won the pentaward. This is the packaging for hair-styling wax. As you can see, there are 6 types of gel, depending on which style you prefer. The special thing about this packaging is that you can touch and feel the surface according to the type of wax. For example, if you choose the rough styling wax, the surface of the package are made so that you can feel the “roughness” – I think this is pretty cool.

3.This bad is the answer to the environment’s needs. They are biodegradable carrier bags made out of flax-viscose non-woven fabric. There are two main benefits that I would like to share. Firstly, this is purely made from industrial waste that we want to get rid of. In other words, the scare natural resources are not used at all. Secondly, this bag is called “60” bag because in approximately 60 days after started using, it decomposed itself, meaning it does not require any recycling process! More information about this bag can be found on this website – Check it out!

Product Replacement as learned in class, is one of the ways of advertising a product. It advertises the by including the logo or symbol of the product into the social media such as clips/movie/TV show ect. I have been seeing a lot of product replacement on social media especially on youtube clips. I have been surfing on internet quite a lot on youtube recently (as mid-terms are over) and I found a music video clip by LMFAO. The name of the song is called Party Rock Anthem. Here is the video.

If you can skip it to 1.35, you can see the BOSE (Company that sells music related: Speaker, headphones ect) headphones, given to the Artist of Lmfao, the DJ, Stefan Kendal Gordy and Skyler Gordy. There are two main benefits that the BOSE Company gained through advertisement on this clip.

Firstly, this music video is widely known and currently, it has more than 4.5 million views though it was only uploaded on 8^th of March 2011. More views means that more people subconsciously remember the logo of Bose, increasing the brand awareness.

Secondly, in this video, it is used by the famous artist, creating an image of what a person must buy to be considered as “cool”, which fits in to the majority. One of the marketing blog, responsible marketing, states that Bose compete against other companies by the quality and thus the price is usually over priced (at least from my point of view),; however it has high reputation due to its competitive advantage. From this information and the way the replace a product, it is almost like Bose product is like a prestige product, where it has positive correlation between price and quantity.

Twitter has been increasing its fame as a social media, where a user can casually update your status. Moreover, even by some large firms and co-orporations, twitter are being recognized and used to enhance the communication links and brand association. For example, on the previous post that I made regarding Adidas new technology, twitter was installed into the virtual  footwear wall(1:39 to 1:45 on the video) so that consumers who come into the store will be able to obtain third view from other twitter users who are also interested in the product.

There are interesting statistics and benefits of using twitter on one of the marketing blog, named Top-rank. Here is the link to the blog ===> Top-rank blog on twitter According to Harvard University, only 12 percent of companies surveyed felt their organizations were using social media effectively. In addition, 75% of the companies in the survey said they did not know where their most valuable customers were talking about them. This shows that social media is still definitely underused.

There are 3 main benefits of using a twitter ; 1) Able to listen to consumers 2) Use as a marketing tool. In other words, firms are able to provide more information and benefits on the new product.(ie. promotion) 3) Get a feedback of the product from consumers and improve on anything that lead to consumer dissatisfaction.

However, twitter can also ruin the image of the companies. One of the UBC blogs recently made by Christina, mentions that when a company uses twitter it is important to be maintain consistency in brand messaging.  She also gave specific example when use of twitter lead to a negative brand image. Here is a link to her blog. UBC blog – Christina’s

Since I was very interested in one of the video about Adidas new technology, which was shown in class today, I decided to do more research and share it with you guys. For people who missed it or forgot about the clip, I have attached the vidoe of the virtual footwear wall innovated by Adidas and Intel.

As explained briefly in class, it is multi-touch screen on the wall, where you can search for the pair of shoes that you are looking for. Not only that it also has the ability to advertise benefits and background of the products. For example, one of the model shoes called F-50, the virtual footwear wall explains, its comfortability, strength and weight of the shoes. In addition to that it displays available size and color that the Adidas currently have.

Some argues that Adidas is just spending money on useless technology when we can just go inside the shop and try by ourselves. However, I feel that it is a good way to display a product as it is interactive, fun and also it tells you more about the product that you are interested in and all the available benefits that a product can offer.

Moreover, there are more than 8000 pair of shoes produced by Adidas. In most cases it is highly likely that a consumer does not have a knowledge of all the products that are offered by Adidas. With this technology a consumer can learn more about the product that they are interested in and also find a new product that he/she was not aware of.

Recently I found an article on the SMH website about a couple having an unique style of marriage in HongKong. Believe it or not, it was held in MacDonald in HongKong.

MacDonald have been inventing new products depending on the countries that are located, so that it  fits with the culture. However, this is definitely the first time where MacDonald offered this “service” to a new market segment. The idea is very unique, though personally I would not want to get married in MacDonald.

According to Ashley and Kevin, the first couple to have a marriage in Macdonald, commented that this idea was appealing because they were tight on their budget and did not have much time since both of them are committed to work. It is known that the average cost of the wedding in Canada is approximately 20,000 o 30,000.  This “Maccas” marriage only cost about $9999 HK which is about $1300  US. The cake is made up of apple pies from macdonald and for the meal, all the attendants get a happy meal. Here is the photo.

There is also a video, attached below, interviewing this couple about their decision on why they had a wedding at Macdonald. Maccas wedding interview

If you want to have a “Cheap” and “Fast” happy wedding, Macdonald might be a good fit for you!